source : Inquirer
The 1KW barrier fell when PC Power and Cooling released the 1KW Turbo Cool which is a consumer level PSU with a 1.1KW peak. It comes with a huge price though - north of $500 and a huge power bill. It is quiet, fits in a normal ATX case and most importantly, it is stable. But power hungry computing seems to have reached its end as Intel, AMD and the rest of the industry try building power efficient solutions.
Review : xyz computing
Intro :
In the quest for maximum PC performance, you cannot have too much of a good thing. The enthusiasts have shown us that two video cards are better than one, as are two hard drives, and faster is always better. While this mentality may seem impractical and even over-the-top, it is one which has driven the overclocking crowd from day one. If your goal is to have the fastest computer or the most frames per second the market has definitively shown us that a computer can always be a bit faster.
A corollary to this search for speed as been the need of increasing amounts of power. As processor frequencies increase and users start to add in extra video cards, hard drives, and cooling, the demands on a computer's power supply rapidly increase. As system builders need more power, the amount provided by power supply manufacturers has exploded. As such, the average power supply has gotten a good deal more powerful and it is not out of the ordinary to see a system being built with a 500W, or more, PSU. While the norm has increased, so has the top range of power supplies. Higher end PSUs have gotten extremely powerful and now top out with the focus of this review, a kilowatt model. With a thousand watts continuous power avaible (1100W peak) this PSU is twice as powerful as a well-equipped unit.
This review will be taking a look at PC Power and Cooling's Turbo-Cool 1KW. This is the first consumer-leve power supply to break the kilowatt mark. This is an incredible feat, but given this power supply's large price tag and all the hype surrounding it, we wanted to take a closer look and see what it could do when fired up.
Conclusion :
As systems are getting more powerful and requiring more from their PSU, many processors and video cards are getting more efficient. This means the amount of powr required by even the most demanding of today's enthusiast systems will not be anywhere near 1000W. In fact the next most powerful consumer PSU on the market besides this one is PC Power's 850W and after that is a 750W. Power supply units above 600W are still tough to find give how few people can take advantage of all that output. In the current computing world, where more always equals "better than" the 1KW is king.
Putting aside the overkill of this product, it still did an amazing job in our testing. The PSU is quiet, stable, and it really packs a punch- it is more powerful than two competitive power supplies. To get this sort of performance users will have to deal with the hefty price tag, which is more than a top-end video card or a good motheboard and processor combined. By that said, this PSU will not be featured in the average computer, or even in a very solid system like our test computer, but rather the high-end dream systems of magazines and professional users, and maybe the occasional heavy duty workstation.
While computers' power demands are rapidly increasing, this power supply goes above and beyond what anyone has called for. It is no doubt a fine product, and will be appreciated by consumers as such, but it is ahead of its time as far as their power demands are concerned. For the occassional user who needs this much power and does not want to design a dual PSU solution, this product could be just they thing, but these people are few and far between. If nothing else, PC Power and Cooling has done an excellent job designing and bringing to market a product which showcases their technical acumen and their advances over the competition.
(+)
- Lots and lots of power
- Stable-
Fits in an ATX case
(-)
- No adjustable pots
- Staggering price tag
The 1KW barrier fell when PC Power and Cooling released the 1KW Turbo Cool which is a consumer level PSU with a 1.1KW peak. It comes with a huge price though - north of $500 and a huge power bill. It is quiet, fits in a normal ATX case and most importantly, it is stable. But power hungry computing seems to have reached its end as Intel, AMD and the rest of the industry try building power efficient solutions.
Review : xyz computing
Intro :
In the quest for maximum PC performance, you cannot have too much of a good thing. The enthusiasts have shown us that two video cards are better than one, as are two hard drives, and faster is always better. While this mentality may seem impractical and even over-the-top, it is one which has driven the overclocking crowd from day one. If your goal is to have the fastest computer or the most frames per second the market has definitively shown us that a computer can always be a bit faster.
A corollary to this search for speed as been the need of increasing amounts of power. As processor frequencies increase and users start to add in extra video cards, hard drives, and cooling, the demands on a computer's power supply rapidly increase. As system builders need more power, the amount provided by power supply manufacturers has exploded. As such, the average power supply has gotten a good deal more powerful and it is not out of the ordinary to see a system being built with a 500W, or more, PSU. While the norm has increased, so has the top range of power supplies. Higher end PSUs have gotten extremely powerful and now top out with the focus of this review, a kilowatt model. With a thousand watts continuous power avaible (1100W peak) this PSU is twice as powerful as a well-equipped unit.
This review will be taking a look at PC Power and Cooling's Turbo-Cool 1KW. This is the first consumer-leve power supply to break the kilowatt mark. This is an incredible feat, but given this power supply's large price tag and all the hype surrounding it, we wanted to take a closer look and see what it could do when fired up.
Conclusion :
As systems are getting more powerful and requiring more from their PSU, many processors and video cards are getting more efficient. This means the amount of powr required by even the most demanding of today's enthusiast systems will not be anywhere near 1000W. In fact the next most powerful consumer PSU on the market besides this one is PC Power's 850W and after that is a 750W. Power supply units above 600W are still tough to find give how few people can take advantage of all that output. In the current computing world, where more always equals "better than" the 1KW is king.
Putting aside the overkill of this product, it still did an amazing job in our testing. The PSU is quiet, stable, and it really packs a punch- it is more powerful than two competitive power supplies. To get this sort of performance users will have to deal with the hefty price tag, which is more than a top-end video card or a good motheboard and processor combined. By that said, this PSU will not be featured in the average computer, or even in a very solid system like our test computer, but rather the high-end dream systems of magazines and professional users, and maybe the occasional heavy duty workstation.
While computers' power demands are rapidly increasing, this power supply goes above and beyond what anyone has called for. It is no doubt a fine product, and will be appreciated by consumers as such, but it is ahead of its time as far as their power demands are concerned. For the occassional user who needs this much power and does not want to design a dual PSU solution, this product could be just they thing, but these people are few and far between. If nothing else, PC Power and Cooling has done an excellent job designing and bringing to market a product which showcases their technical acumen and their advances over the competition.
(+)
- Lots and lots of power
- Stable-
Fits in an ATX case
(-)
- No adjustable pots
- Staggering price tag